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EJToday: Top Headlines

EJToday is SEJ's selection of new and outstanding stories on environmental topics in print and on the air, updated every weekday. SEJ also offers a free e-mailed digest of the day's EJToday postings, called SEJ-beat. SEJ members are subscribed automatically. Non-members may subscribe here. EJToday is also available via RSS feed.

"Scott Pruitt, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, traveled to his home state, Oklahoma, 10 times over three months this year, largely at taxpayer expense, according to a report released Monday."

"Eight U.S. senators called for an investigation today after a federal climate scientist filed a whistleblower complaint alleging that he had been arbitrarily reassigned by the Trump administration in what he believed was retaliation for speaking out publicly about the dangers climate change poses to Alaska Native communities."

"Energy Transfer Partners LP's (ETP.N) Rover pipeline, the biggest natural gas pipeline under construction in the United States, received more bad news after West Virginia told the company to stop some work, citing environmental violations, regulators said on Monday."

"Colorado native David Bernhardt’s nomination by President Donald Trump to the post of deputy Interior secretary was confirmed Monday by the U.S. Senate, despite concerns from Democrats who call him a Washington insider and from conservationists worried about his environmental record."

"A federal appeals court on Monday ruled in favor of a wildlife activist who said his free speech rights were violated when a sheriff's deputy barred him from watching livestock agents herd wild bison into Yellowstone National Park."

"During a stop in East Chicago three months ago, Scott Pruitt vowed that cleaning up the low-income, predominantly African-American and Latino city would be one of his top priorities as head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency."

"The Atlantic Coast Pipeline intended to carry natural gas across West Virginia, Virginia and North Carolina would have some adverse environmental effects, including impacts on water resources, forest and other habitats, but most could be reduced to insignificant levels, an assessment by federal regulators found."

"State utility and gas regulators ignored a top gas manager's warnings about the risk of earthquakes to aging wells at the Aliso Canyon gas storage field when they okayed it to resume operations, Los Angeles County said Friday in court papers."

"Michael Dourson, President Donald Trump’s nominee to head the EPA’s Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention, founded and ran a toxicology consulting firm whose work enabled DuPont to avoid providing clean water to people in West Virginia after the company contaminated the area around one of its plants with a dangerous industrial chemical."

"David Bernhardt, President Trump’s nominee for deputy interior secretary, has been described as 'an excellent choice' by supporters and 'a walking conflict of interest' by opponents. The full Senate is set to vote on his nomination Monday.

Bernhardt wouldn’t be new to the Interior Department. He served under President George W. Bush as solicitor, the third-ranking position at the department, and as a legal officer. But more recently, he worked for a lobbying firm representing energy interests and a water district.

"After receiving nearly 1.5 million public comments, the Department of the Interior’s national monuments review enters its final month. Meanwhile, Secretary Ryan Zinke continues to visit sites under review."

"Rick Perry has danced his way back into the climate denial camp. At his Senate confirmation hearing earlier this year, the secretary of energy admitted that the climate is changing and that 'some of it is caused by man-made activity.'"